I admit I was somewhat skeptical when this episode began, but something happened. I found myself going to a totally unexpected place by the end of this show. Lisa Ling gave us a closer look into faith healing as well as her heart in this week’s episode of Our America.
In Fort Mill, South Carolina, the Morning Star ministries held a healing conference for hundreds of people and OWN’s Lisa Ling was there to cover it. Not only was the place filled with faith…but it was full of hope. Many of them had their hopes tied to one preacher, Todd Bentley.
With an early life full of drugs and crime, he claimed he had been born again at the age of 20. He then found his gift to heal and eventually toured the world drawing hundreds-of-thousands of people to his healing sessions claiming God heals through him. THEN, Todd was outed as a hypocrite! He had committed adultery and was getting divorced. After the dust settled, Todd re-emerged in Fort Mill…once again entering this multi-billion dollar industry. Now, people were spending hundreds of dollars to attend the conference in hopes of having their prayers answered.
I watched Lisa interview Todd as he laid back in his Lazy-Boy. I know power can inflate the ego a bit, but this was off. Lisa continued to ask him questions on camera as he answered from his reclined chair. It felt disrespectful. I have never watched an interview where someone kicked back on a lazy-boy while someone stood next to them. I don’t believe he didn’t know better…I think he just felt above it.
As Lisa makes her way around the conference, it is easy to sense the hope in the air. She was drawn to a man in a wheelchair and approached him with such kindness. Paralyzed from the waist down, he was expecting to be healed and planned to walk out pushing his wheelchair. His faith was strong. Lisa’s concern and hope for this man built as the show progressed. With tears in her eyes, you could see that she was afraid of what would happen to him and his faith if he wasn’t healed. At the end of the show, he was not able to walk yet his faith was not shattered. He knew this was merely a “blink” in time. I only wonder how he felt once he got home and it all soaked in.
In all, I began to realize this had less to do with Todd or his ministry and everything to do with HOPE. You don’t need to pay hundreds of dollars to someone to lay their hands upon you. You bring your OWN healing through hope. Having a positive outlook can make a huge difference.
My mom likes to do this test to prove the point. Hold you arms out straight and tight while you think of something positive and inspiring. Ask someone to try to push down on them. Then, repeat the scenario thinking about negative and depressing stuff. You will notice a difference.
I am not sure I believe in the MorningStar ministries healing sessions, but I do believe in hope and positive thinking. If people believe the conference made them better, then it might have…simply because they believed it did. So, the old adage “laughter is the best medicine” really is true. Thank you Lisa Ling and OWN for reminding me of that.
what a load of crap! what i saw was people taking money from the sick to “cure” them when they couldn’t even afford their medical bills!!! no miracles happened…no-one walked and the womans cancer got worse!!!
It was hard to watch the hope of those who desperately wanted to get better. I wondered the same…how can people believe so strongly in something that doesn’t really happen? It reminded me of a previous blog I had written, the Miracle Detectives episode of the Holy Love Campus, where a crowd psychologist spoke of how people can believe in something with very little compelling evidence. The more like-minded people there are…the more likely they are to believe. Faith can be beneficial to healing. However, the issue I struggle with is….I don’t ever recall hearing stories of Jesus offering to help only those who are willing to pay for it.
If the intention was to get real insight into authentic faith healing and just that, then why choose Todd Bentley? WIth him you get a lot of other drama. Or maybe he’s the only one who would say yes, because many evangelists have been so scarred by pseudo journalism that they are hesitant to open up. With Mr. Bentley, there’s so much of the other stuff– maybe makes for “good” television. But what do they call that again? Oh yes, Drama.
Jsy, I agree. It is possible they chose him because he was controversial and so accessible.
1. I have watched this for the 4th time now , and I am sickened by the greed of Todd Bentley and Morningstar church!!!!! . This is Tammy Fay and Jim Baker all over again, Plain as day!!!!! And I am not proud to say I am from South Carolina anymore!.
I grew up in a very profound Christian home and have studied the Bible relentlessly as I have had a Mother that made sure we as kids were at church every Sunday and Every Wednesday and every time the doors of the church were open.
There is one thing I know for certain, the Masaya Jesus Christ never charged for his service, miracles or messages and never sported rings on every finger of his hand as a symbol of self wealth. This goes without saying the boasting Todd had for his truck and mutable Lazy boy recliners !!!! This is not concurrent with the life that a messenger of god would partake. Shame on all of you, as there were no real healing revealed in this airing.
Shame On Morning Star Church and Todd Bentley as your money making skim is not inline with the teachings of Jesus Christ!
Move over Tammy and Jim — Here come some other to Join you.
Shane Mac !
Lisa ,, No disrespect to you. You are a awesome caring and passionate journalist that I admire greatly !
Thank you for commenting, Shane. I may be wrong, but it is possible OWN’s Our America choose this episode to get people talking about the topic. Where I tend to agree with you on several points, Todd Bentlley wasn’t the only topic that arose from this episode. Many viewers saw the same things we did and hopefully they are talking about it. I can’t help but think…the producers pick and choose what they are going to air out of many hours of taping. They chose to show us the lazy boy scene. To me, that says a lot!